Jack West Jr Books in Order

The Jack West Jr books follow an Australian soldier‑scholar who keeps finding himself at the centre of world‑ending problems. Jack is ex‑SAS, missing an arm after an early rescue mission and equipped with a high‑tech replacement built by his mentor. He’s also an amateur archaeologist with a soft spot for lost civilizations and impossible puzzles.

The series begins with Seven Deadly Wonders (published elsewhere as Seven Ancient Wonders), where Jack leads a coalition of “small nations” on a race through the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Their goal is to reassemble a legendary Golden Capstone before the return of a catastrophic sunspot event. If a single superpower wins that race, it gains a thousand years of dominance; if Jack’s team succeeds, the power can’t be hoarded by one nation.

In The Six Sacred Stones and The Five Greatest Warriors, the stakes widen even further. Jack and his found family of soldiers, scientists and misfits discover an ancient machine designed to shield Earth from a devastating cosmic phenomenon known as the Dark Sun. To rebuild it they must locate six diamond pillars and a set of mystical stones scattered across the globe, all while ruthless rivals—and Jack’s own father—try to seize control.

Later books push Jack beyond treasure hunting into something closer to mythic gladiator games. In The Four Legendary Kingdoms, he’s kidnapped into an underground contest where champions of secret royal houses fight through lethal trials inspired by ancient myths. The Three Secret Cities sends him chasing lost strongholds while being hunted by an order of assassins whose grudge stretches back millennia.

The final two novels, The Two Lost Mountains and The One Impossible Labyrinth, bring everything to a head. Jack has to find mysterious “iron mountains,” survive a ritual called the Fall, and reach the heart of the Supreme Labyrinth before a cosmic countdown reaches zero. Old enemies return, new players emerge, and threads from earlier books—odd artefacts, throwaway legends, even short stories like Jack West Jr. and the Chinese Splashdown—snap together.

Across the series Reilly mixes real places and history with unapologetically over‑the‑top inventions: booby‑trapped pyramids, subterranean oceans, moon missions no one talked about at the time. The tone is big and pulpy, but there’s a strong emotional core built around Jack’s adopted daughter Lily, his teammates, and the idea that one small group of friends can, quite literally, save the world.

If you like intricate set‑pieces, outrageous escapes and long‑running mysteries that pay off several books later, the Jack West Jr novels are designed to be read back‑to‑back, each one upping the scale of the adventure.